Articles
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Slow Six

Albums
Another Electronic Musician
Balmorhea
Celer
City of Satellites
Cylon
Deadbeat
Kyle Bobby Dunn
Eluvium
Ent
Ido Govrin
Danny Paul Grody
Chihei Hatakeyama
Wyndel Hunt
The Internal Tulips
Keepsakes
The Knife
Kshatriy
Lali Puna
Francisco López
Mask
Melodium
Monolake
Clara Moto
Myrmyr
Nos Phillipé
Ontayso
Outputmessage
Pleq
The Q4
Schuster
Shinkei + mise_en_scene
The Sight Below
Sphere Rex
subtractiveLAD
Bjørn Svin
Tamagawa
Ten and Tracer
Trills
Trouble Books
Yellow Swans

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail Vol. III
Does Your Cat Know My...
Emerging Organisms 3
Moment Sound Vol. 1

EPs
Brim Liski
Ceremony
Eric Chenaux
Abe Duque
Hieroglyphic Being
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Manaboo
Monolake
Mr Cooper & Dday One
Pleq & Seque
Nigel Samways
Santos and Woodward
Simon Scott
Soundpool
Stimming, Watt & Biel
Stray Ghost
Ten and Tracer
Stuchka Vkarmanye

Stuchka Vkarmanye: Things I Think Whilst Looking at Clouds
Concrete Plastic

Stuchka Vkarmanye: doesn't quite roll of the tongue, does it. Luckily for Eliad Wagner, the man behind the mask, his music rolls out a whole lot more easily. Born and raised in Israel and currently working on his M.A. in the Netherlands, Wagner (he's also the oc-founder of the Israel-based label ±g6pd records) creates his material using analogue electronic instruments and computer programming, four frothy samplings of which show up on his EP for Concrete Plastic, Things I Think Whilst Looking at Clouds.

Led by a warbling analog synth melody, “Cat Food” lunges from the gate with a jubilant mix of keyboard melodies and chattering drum machine beats. The equally radiant “Mumpf” performs staccato cartwheels for a quirky two minutes before the EP's choice cut, “Idan.satan.rahm.spinat,” shows up. Sparked by a lightly swinging funk pulse, chunky synth lines and punctuating chords deliver the synthetic goods with a breezy élan that'd weaken the defences of the most stalwart anti-IDMer. The EP's sole hint of darkness sets in during “Manon” when chiming melodies dance through a landscape of writhing squelch and grime, but no one should mind having a bit of drama on hand to balance out the light-heartedness. Classic IDM seems to be experiencing a resurrection of sorts, or maybe I'm just hearing more of it these days. Regardless, Things I Think Whilst Looking at Clouds riffs on vintage Plaid-styled IDM in a manner that's anything but objectionable.

March 2010